Geomancer
Geomancers are ordinary individuals who commune with the Earth and act on its behalf. The most prominent Geomancer is Geoff McHenry, whose loss after the Chaos Effect prompts Gilad Anni-Padda to fill the void he left with his uncle, Clay McHenry, who becomes one with the Earth. Awakenings In 1192 AD, while Gilad fought the Immortal Enemy at the temple of Mangyur in Ladakh, losing his opportunity to see his friend Tashi Khatun before he died, at the neighboring temple of Lamayuru, Tashi finished inscribing the Book of Geomancers. Before dying, Tashi left a message to his successors asking them not to be fooled by what they could see, as eyes and minds were meant to be deceived, and asking them to go beyond both, since the inner truth and beauty of all things lied within. In 1994, Officers Tommy Underwood and Crosby, two corrupt policemen, walked into Carrib's delicatessen in Brooklyn just as Clay McHenry, their former blind Sergeant, finishing his shopping. Addressing them sarcastically, Clay infuriated Underwood and Crosby, who followed him and tripped him so he would fall. Warning Clay that he would not let his past forget him, Underwood let him know that he would be watching him and his partner, James Simpson. Later, after Clay returned home, he considered leaving the city to escape the ghosts that reminding him of the mess he had made of his life. Once a decorated officer, Clay destroyed himself and lost his wife by accepting bribes. Sitting on his bed, Clay took a gun out from under his pillow to silence the voices in his head that told him that something was coming, but unable to pull the trigger, he tossed the gun and cursed himself for being a coward. Walking into the room, Gilad Anni–Padda gave Clay the Book of Geomancers, and upon holding the tome in his hands, Clay’s mind opened up and the souls of men and woman who walked on the planet and served as its messenger slid through his body like an autumn chill. For what seemed like an eternity, Clay joined the world and the essence of everything in it. Unable to describe what he experienced in words, Clay collapsed, overwhelmed by what he saw. Standing over Clay, Gilad was certain that he had found the Earth’s chosen messenger, the next Geomancer. Meanwhile, inside a penthouse apartment in Manhattan, an unseen necromancer garbed in a tunic rose Vise and Nitro from the dead to lead his minions and bring him the book. A few hours later in an abandoned factory, Gilad showed Clay a crate filled with Buck McHenry’s possessions, and, amazed, he listened to them tell him that he was the one. However, pointing out that the objects did not make the choice and that the decision was his, Gilad told Clay that Lieutenant Thomas Morgan told him that his name popped up a few times in an internal investigation on police corruption. Aware that Clay had been in isolation feeling sorry for himself ever since he was blinded in an illegal transaction six months earlier while his partner was paralyzed, Gilad told him that he had dealt with questionable Geomancers in the past, and that dishonorable Geomancers died dishonorably. Garbed in a t shirt with the peace sign and a bandana on his head that he found in the crate, Clay assured Gilad that he was not afraid to die, and that he would show the Earth that he was worthy. Before they began their journey, however, Clay asked Gilad to let him visit James. Later, at St. Theresa’s hospital, James assured him that he did not blame him for what happened, and said that it was fate that paralyzed him. Staring at Clay, James told him that he could see the great man he would become. As Clay left the room, however, Gilad accused him of paralyzing James and having no honor. As they left the hospital, Gilad told Clay that he did not think he had Geomancer material, and that it would take a lot to convince him otherwise. Infuriated with Gilad’s belittling, Clay demanded that he give him the book and leave, but Gilad refused, when just then, the necromancer’s minions erupted from the Earth and surrounded them. While Gilad disposed of the zombies, Nitro stabbed Clay with a dagger. Near death, Clay collapsed in Gilad’s arms with the book in his hands, and though he did not know if Clay had what it took to be a Geomancer, Gilad took him with him, swearing that he would not lose him like he lost Geoff. Hours later, Gilad buried Clay at the foot of a tree to make him undergo an ancient Geomancer ritual of regeneration, the only chance he had of surviving, although he warned him that after what he would go through he might regret doing it at all. Shoveling the last piece of dirt over Clay’s head, Gilad called him Geomancer for the first time and told him that he would see him on the other side. Resuscitation In June of 1985, in Siwah, Egypt, Geoff McHenry freed himself from a ditch in which his uncle Buck McHenry had buried him. Pulling the boy out of the sand, Buck gave him the ax to learn if he possessed the sight, and though Geoff could listen to the voices, Buck warned him that there were plenty of more challenges ahead While Clay McHenry lay buried in the ground to heal from his wounds, the Earth slapped him with memories of his past life and failures. Recalling the time that his uncle Buck McHenry saved him from two hungry wolves when he was a child, Clay remembered his warning that the Earth had plans for him and that he could run from what was meant to be. As his memories flashed forward, Clay saw himself in bed with his wife, Samantha, shortly after he took the oath to uphold the law in New York City and he gave her an engagement ring that he wished he could replace with a fancier one. That night, Clay took James to his first meeting with a drug dealer called Manny and other corrupt police officers to divide their share of a drug deal, and though Clay urged him to go home, James decided to stick around and followed him inside the room. While waiting for Underwood to arrive, Manny divvyed the money between himself and the other officers, when all of a sudden the police raided the place. Running away, Clay and James hid behind a trashcan, when then James recognized one of the police officers and told him to hold his fire. Unexpectedly, however, the officer shot James in the neck and paralyzed him, while the bullet ricocheted off a fence and hit Clay in the forehead, blinding him. Following the accident, Samantha left Clay, who had shut everything out of his life, including her. Watching Samantha walk out on him, Clay could not say the one word that would stop her from leaving, when all of a sudden, he saw the necromancer in the green tunic drag Samantha out of the room, a message from the Earth that replaced his true memories of what transpired in the past. As the necromancer removed the cloak over his face, Clay recognized that he was his cousin, Elyot Zorn, who told him that he despised him since they were teens and that his accident assured that he would posses Samantha, the one thing Clay had that Elyot’s wealth could not buy. Transforming into a demon, Elyot dared Clay to get Samantha back from him. Crying Samantha’s name, Clay pulled himself free from the ground. Noticing that the scars from the fight with the zombies were gone, Clay wondered how long he had been down in the ground as he felt like he had relived his whole life. Telling Clay that he had his doubts that he would pull through, Gilad told him that, unlike others who had failed the ritual, he survived and was the Geomancer. As Gilad told him that they had to walk together until the Earth told them to stop and he met his destiny, Clay told Gilad that he would walk the path of the Geomancer alone. Enraged, Gilad told Clay that it was his responsibility to teach him and defend him, but Clay walked away and fired Gilad, which upset him even further and a fight ensued. Pushing Clay to the ground, Gilad sat on him and told him that it was his immortal duty to be the fist and steel of the Earth, and that he answered only to the Earth. Just then, a bolt of lightning hit a nearby tree and set it ablaze, a message from the Earth that Gilad interpreted to say that it was futile of him to try to protect someone who did not want or need to be protected. As Clay told Gilad that the Earth said that he had his own destiny to fulfill and that he was a free man, Gilad wished Clay good luck and the two men parted ways. Later, while Clay made his way through the forest, Vise and Nitro attacked him again and demanded the book, but their bodies, withered and weak, fell apart and Clay swatted them out of his way with ease. Walking away, Clay wondered what his destiny would be. Challenge In 3352 BC, in a cavern outside the city of Lagash in Mesopotamia, Valurr, the second Geomancer, watched as Ulst, a necromancer who the dark power had de–evolved into an ape–like creature garbed in a green cloak and armed with a magic staff, devoured the remains of a child’s corpse. Engaging Ulst in battle, Valurr slayed the great beast and emerged from his den holding its head on his hand. In 1994, inside the Sphinx in Egypt, the necromancer in the green tunic resurrected Master Darque’s elementals to stop Clay and recover the book for him. A week later, in Port Said, Egypt, Clay disembarked from a ship and wondered if traveling to the corners of the Earth not knowing why was what being a Geomancer was about. While Clay mused over how he could not even read the Book of Geomancers, and that maybe he should not have dumped Gilad after all, a kid suddenly stole his cane and left him completely helpless amid the crowd. Moving aimlessly, unaware that a man called Stern was watching him, Clay came upon a small man who recognized that he was a Geomancer and told him to follow him. Arriving at the man’s home, Clay learned that the man could hear the whispers of the Earth. Asking Clay to give him the book, the man told him that he was a friend of Gilad’s, who had trusted him with the book once long ago. Opening the book, the man told Clay that necromancy once again threatened all who lived on Earth, and that he had to defend them all. Back in Brooklyn, Underwood, worried that Internal Affairs was investigated him, decided to pay James a visit to ensure that he would not talk. Very early the next morning, Clay waited for his challenge atop the Sphinx, where the man told him to go, when all of a sudden the Elementals attacked him. Retreating inside the Sphinx, Clay found a hidden room where he discovered a silver cane imbued with great power, for both good and evil. While Clay wondered if the Earth had sent him across the globe for the cane, the Elementals attacked him again. Letting go of his doubts, and trusting the guidance of the Earth, Clay attacked the Elementals with the cane, which swallowed the fire and air Elementals into itself. As the Earth elemental escaped, he caused an earthquake that threatened to bury Clay, who as he escaped found a green cloak that the necromancer had inadvertently left behind. Soon, while Clay sat in the desert clutching the cloak in the hope that it would give him some clues about who was behind the Elementals that attacked him, two men approached him and told him that his cousin, Zorn, wanted to see him. Deducing that seeing Zorn would be no worse than what he had been through, Clay followed the men to a helicopter. Back in Brooklyn, Underwood entered James’ room and, ominously, told him that he did not like to leave loose ends. Ties That Bind In 324 BC in India, as Hephaestion cried out to the Earth for forsaking him and no longer speaking to him in its sweet voice, Khandania, his apprentice and new Geomancer, and slayed him for his display of greed, lust for power, and betrayal of Gilad the One in the name of justice. In 1994, Clay arrived on a private island off the coast of France that belonged to his cousin, Elyot Zorn. Recalling the vision that warned him of the danger his cousin posed to him, and aware that Gilad had a run–in with Zorn months earlier during his quest for a Geomancer, Clay knew that being there was not a good idea, but he had to find out what Zorn was up to. Led to a party by the pool area by Zorn’s bodyguards, Clay came upon his cousin, who welcomed him with open arms, yet soon as Clay went into the house to take a bath, behind his back Zorn plotted how to take the Book of Geomancers from him. Later, after Clay took a bath, Rachel, one of Zorn’s girls, tried to kill him by throwing a knife at him, but, attuned to his surroundings, he deflected the blade and chased her out of his room. Deciding not to follow Rachel since he did not know the house, Clay returned to his room. Back in Brooklyn, Underwood told James that he heard a rumor that he was feeling guilty about some of their assignments and was gonna point the finger at him. Holding a pillow over James’ face to suffocate him, Underwood confessed that he shot him and Clay, but then a nurse and a nun walked by the room and he had to stop. Walking out the door, Underwood promised that he would be back. Sometime later during dinner at Zorn’s island, as Elyot mockingly asked Clay about Samantha and said that he would give her a call sometime, Clay told him that he would have as much luck with her as he had trying to be a Geomancer. Revealing to Clay that he wished to be a Geomancer, Elyot, enraged, said that the book belonged to him, that it spoke to him and begged him to take it, and that if it had not been for Gilad he would have it. Certain that Gilad had found the right guy for the calling in him, Clay told Elyot that, even though he had made mistakes in the past, he had something he would never bothered to have, honor, and that he could never be Geomancer because he was the same greedy, selfish, sneaky creep he remembered when they were kids. Enraged, Elyot tossed two shish kebab skewers at Clay, one of which impaled him on the shoulder while the other set the curtains ablaze, then, screaming that he would kill him, he lunged against Clay, who tossed him out a window and knocked him out. All of a sudden, Rachael jumped over Clay’s back, and while they struggled his bag tore open and the book fell next to Elyot. Falling into the pool, Clay pushed Rachael against a wall and knocked her out, then, holding her in his arms, he climbed back up and faced Elyot, who had the book in his hands and a gun aimed at his head to kill him so he would become the next Geomancer. Removing the skewer from his shoulder, Clay tossed it at Elyot and hit him in the arm. Falling to his knees, Elyot dropped the gun and the book, then, after coming out of the pool, Clay grabbed the book and told Elyot that it he would never be the Geomancer because he did not have the honor. As Clay walked away, Elyot swore that he would kill him, Returning to the house, Clay came upon Zorn’s men, who opened fire on him. Dodging the bullets, Clay inadvertently walked into the blaze set by the burning curtains, but, trusting his instincts and his bond with the Earth, he walked through the fire, which parted for him like the Red Sea did for Moses, and retrieved the silver cane. While the flames closed behind him to prevent Zorn’s men from following him, Clay jumped out a window and escaped. Back at the pool, Zorn’s men wrapped his arm in the green cloak that Clay left behind, which, suddenly, caused him great pain that made him loose consciousness. Sometime later, on a yacht in the nearby Bay of Biscay, Clay climbed on deck and asked for a lift back to the mainland. Riot Gear Riot Gear – Part I: Sacrifice On May 8th 1429, Joan the Maid, a Geomancer, led the French on the Siege of Orleans and victory over the British. Shortly, while Gilad commended Joan on her reuniting France with the crowning of Charles VIII, and giving the French the push they needed to overcome the dominance of England, he could tell that something was troubling her, but, laying her head down, she said that she was thinking about her destiny. Two years later, Gilad broke into a prison in Rouen, France to free Joan from the British, but, telling him to trust the word of the Geomancer, she told him that she had to die so that France might forever live, and that if their friendship meant anything, he would do as she asked. Soon, Gilad watched as the British burned Joan at the stake, not realizing that her death would make her immortal, a Saint to the people of France. In 1994, at Carrib’s delicatessen in Brooklyn, Clay McHenry beat down two thugs who were shacking Carrib for protection money. Later at a police precinct, Angelo Scarpelli, a mob boss in cahoots with Underwood, ordered him to take care of Clay and James before they revealed their arrangement to Internal Affairs. Eager to prove himself, Joey, Angelo’s lackey, urged him to let him kill Clay and James, but Angelo decided to give Underwood another chance. After playing basketball with a group of kids in the park that were afraid of him due to how he used to be when he was a cop, Clay returned to his apartment and mused over how it was not too late to change things while holding a framed picture of him with Samantha in his hands. Meanwhile, Andar and Turok got lost in Brooklyn while looking for the Museum of Natural History. That night, at Saint Theresa Hospital in Brooklyn, Clay visited James, who told him that Underwood tried to kill him, and reiterated Underwood’s confession that he was the one that shot them. Elsewhere, learning that Clay was at the hospital, Underwood plotted to blame Clay for trying to kill his partner and forcing him and his men to shoot him for resisting arrest. Later, Clay watched as Underwood’s men surrounded the hospital from the window of James’s room. Outside the hospital, Underwood was shocked to find Angelo waiting for him with Joey by his side dressed in a police uniform. Telling Underwood that he had no choice, Angelo said that Joey would be going o go in with his offices to make sure that there were no slip us. Just then, Turok and Andar noticed the commotion around the hospital and asked the officers if they could help, but Underwood brushed them aside with a derogatory remark that incensed Andar. Calming his protégée down, Turok suggested that they go inside to see what was happening. Bursting into the hospital, Underwood and his men walked into James’ room to kill him, but just as Underwood aimed his gun at who he believed was James in bed, Clay jumped out from under the covers and pushed Underwood’s hand aside just as he fired. Knocking out Underwood’s men with the silver cane, Clay chased Crosby into the hallway, where Underwood unexpectedly shot him point blank in the chest. Riot Gear – Part II: Revenge In 1836, in a Cherokee Village in Georgia, USA, a Native American Geomancer returned home to discover that everyone in his village was slaughtered. Holding his dying mother in his arms, the Geomancer renounced the calling of the Earth and vowed to take his own revenge. The next day, the Geomancer found his mother’s killers in a saloon and shot them. Looming over Clay, Underwood was certain that he killed him, but, suddenly, Clay kicked him across the head and sent him reeling back. Shocked, Underwood saw as Clay removed the slugs from the bulletproof vest in his chest. Just then, Crosby shouted at Clay to freeze and aimed his gun at him. Sensing Crosby’s hesitation to shoot him, Clay ran away and turned a corner. Going inside a room where he hid James, Clay picked him in his arms and took him outside to escape. Just then, Turok, thinking that Clay was kidnapping James, trained an arrow on him and ordered him to put James down. Explaining the situation to Turok and Andar, Clay asked them to help him, and having heard of the legendary seers of the Earth, Turok agreed to help them. While Turok and Andar kept Underwood and his men busy, Clay ran away with James in his arms, unaware that someone was following them. Making it to the roof, Clay laid James down on the ground and stood on a ledge wondering what to do next. Just then, Underwood came up from behind Clay and shot him in the back of the leg. As Underwood loomed over him once again, Clay swatted the gun from his hand, which fell beside James, and punched him, but, hitting Clay with his truncheon, Underwood recovered the upper hand and beat him down severely. As Underwood knelt down to pick up his gun to kill Clay, James bit him in the ankle, and as he tried to break loose, Underwood lost his balance and fell over the side of the building. A month later, Underwood, who received multiple fractures as a result of his fall and laid in a full body cast on a bed in St. Theresa’s hospital, watched a news report on TV about AI’s investigation of his precinct and the arrest of his officers under accusations of criminal behavior. Refusing or unable to speak since his arrest, Underwood inscribed the peace symbol on Clay’s shirt on his cast with his own blood as a sign of his hatred. Desert Storm In Mesopotamia in 3366 BC, Valurr returned to his village and discovered that his father, Khanit, had used the powers over nature given to him by the Earth to slaughter everyone in their tribe. Accusing Khanit of abusing his gift, Valurr dared him to face him. His entrance prefaced by a bolt of lightning, Khanit hovered over Valurr, his tattered cloak flowing in the breeze off his shoulders, and with ominous eyes told Valurr that he was sorry that their reunion would be brief. On top of a rock formation in the New Mexico desert in 1994, Turok used a plume of smoke to show Clay an image of Elyot Zorn transformed into a man–beast and told him that their earlier encounter had set a new chain of events into motion. Blaming himself for creating the man–beast that Zorn had become, Clay feared for Samantha’s safety. Meanwhile, in Zorn’s private island off the coast of France, Zorn, who had locked himself in a room and not allowed anyone in his staff to see him ever since he wrapped himself in the cursed cloak, fell to his knees and passed out. Regaining his consciousness, Zorn let out a mighty bellow that shattered the window as his body underwent a diabolical transformation. The next morning at a bus depot in New Mexico, Clay saw James off as he left for his sister’s place, thankful for his help in saving him from Underwood. After James’ bus left, Clay turned to Turok and Andar and told them that he was going to find Samantha. Though Turok offered him their help, Clay, feeling responsible for Samantha’s safety, said that he needed to do it on his own. Back in France, Zorn’s bodyguards broke into his room and were mystified to discover that Zorn had transformed it into a metaphysical landscape, while he himself had become a horned devil reminiscent of a mythological Satyr. Levitating Rachel to him, Zorn used his newly acquired powers to kill his bodyguards. On a bus headed to Las Vegas, where Samantha had been living since the divorce, Clay blamed himself for letting her go and promised himself that he would not let Zorn hurt her or let him ruin their chance to get back together. Elsewhere, Zorn stood atop the sign of the Horseshoe Hotel in Las Vegas where Samantha worked as a blackjack dealer, while a torrential storm befell the city. Hours later, as Clay’s bus arrived at the depot, and the closer he got to Las Vegas the worse the storm got, Clay discerned that the Earth was telling him that there was major trouble there, so he leapt out of the bus and ran toward Samantha’s trailer park. Meanwhile, as Samantha arrived home, she was shocked to find Zorn waiting for her inside. Reaching the trailer park, Clay broke into Samantha’s trailer and found Zorn holding Samantha in his grasp. Looking forward to their rematch, the evil Zorn told Clay that he had a feeling it would not end like last time. And In The End ... Though the battle between father and son raged, and Khanit easily had the upper hand over Valurr thanks to his powers over nature, the Earth, judging Valurr worthy, lent him a hand and stripped Khanit of the gift it had bestowed upon him. Striking his father with his sword, Valurr killed the demented Geomancer and took the mantle for himself, with the distinction that he would lack immortality and control over the elements. In 1994, Clay warned Zorn to let Samantha go, but telling him that he was not the same pitiful man he met in France months before, Zorn refused to free Samantha, who he called too beautiful to ever let go. Crediting the cloak for giving him the power to create a world, Zorn snapped his fingers and opened a portal that he took Samantha into after he dared Clay to follow them if he wanted her back bad enough. Thinking that to get Samantha he would go to the ends of the Earth, Clay leapt into the portal behind them. Finding himself in Zorn’s domain, Clay discovered that it had cut his connection to the Earth, and that he was on his own, unable to hear the Earth’s voice or feel its hand helping to guide him, which left him really blind since the first time he touched the Book of Geomancers. Opening his cloak, Zorn attacked Clay with a barrage of venomous snakes that threw him to the ground. Though Clay tried to convince himself that the snakes were not real, their bite caused him physical pain that challenged his assertion. Unbeknownst to Clay, however, the snakes were in fact an illusion cast by Zorn, who opened a portal back to Earth and took Samantha with him, abandoning Clay behind in Unreality. Reaching for Samantha, Clay grabbed his hand and snapped her out of Zorn’s bewildering spell before she walked through the portal and closed behind her. Alone in Unreality, Clay blamed himself for leaving the cloak in France where Zorn found it, guilt that transformed his physical self into a reflection of his shame like it had others who had traveled to Unreality before. Appearing on the roof of the Horseshoe Hotel, Samantha, her mind free of Zorn’s spell, punched Zorn across the face and demanded that he tell her what he did to her. Enraged, Zorn tossed Samantha on her back and screamed at her. Meanwhile, back in Unreality, the memory of the night Clay gave Samantha her engagement ring, and her words that the message the ring entailed that they would be together forever snapped Clay out of his pity and helped him regain his strength. Back in the physical realm, Zorn accused Clay of abandoning Samantha and offered her to help her get a better life if she went with him, but calling him a pompous creep, Samantha told him that she could take care of herself and that she did not even like him. Enraged, Zorn levitated Samantha above his head and, with a snarl, said that if he could not have her then no one would. Just then, Clay appeared in the roof and ordered Zorn to let Samantha go. Taunting Zorn, Clay challenged him to fight him as he was the one he blamed for standing in the way of her loving him. Furious, Zorn dropped Samantha and jumped at Clay, who hit him with his Silver Cane, which shattered upon impact. As the cousins struggled, Clay took the cloak off Zorn, who reverted back to a man, and then tossed him against the hotel sign, which electrocuted him upon impact and killed him. Amazed to see him, Samantha ran to Clay and, with a smile, held him in her arms and asked him what he was doing there. Taking a ring out of his pocket, Clay placed it on Samantha’s finger and told her that it meant they would stay together forever. Category: Geomancer Category: Valiant Universe